The Educator Magazine U.K. Sept-Dec 2026 issue - Magazine - Page 48
Martyn’s Law is
approaching, but
are schools ready?
With new requirements under Martyn’s Law fast approaching,
education settings have less than a year to put the right
procedures, training and communication systems in place to
respond to serious threats. Alex Jay, CEO of Little Green Button,
looks at who is ready and why early action matters.
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act
2025 - better known as Martyn’s Law - was
passed in April last year, extending
responsibility for counter-terrorism
preparedness to a widerange of public
places.
Alongside perhaps more obvious places such as entertainment and leisure venues
or sports grounds - the Act also applies to
early years, schools and further education
settings where 200 or more people are
reasonably expected to be on site at any
one time. In other words, the vast majority
of UK schools fall within scope.
As of now, the new duties it requires covering lockdowns, evacuation,
invacuation and wider preparedness are not yet in force. The government has
allowed a two-year implementation
period, pushing enforcement into early to
mid-2027.
Now mid-2026, that leaves us with less than
a year left before expectations begin to kick
in and the assumption most will have
already begun testing plans, tech and staff
to work out what lockdown readiness
actually looks like in practice.
A huge gap remains
However, research conducted earlier this
year by Little Green Button suggests this is
far from the case. Despite the ticking clock,
and the fact the Government recently
published new statutory guidance on the
Act, data based on responses from more
than 1,200 education professionals across
the UK reveals a significant gap, both in
preparedness and awareness.
One of the most worrying findings was
that 44% of surveyed UK schoolworkers
reported being completely “unfamiliar”
with the legislation, while an additional
one-third (31%) said they were unaware
of any preparations for it.
Low awareness of the legal changes was
also accompanied by growing concern over
school safety, with more than one-third
(36%) of education staff saying that schools
have become more dangerous places
to work, and high levels of aggression
reported towards staff from pupils and their
parents.
How schools should get prepared
While these statistics may be cause for concern, the hope is that drawing attention to them now will help raise awareness of the current gap
that exists and encourage the remaining implementation period to be used as effectively as possible.
With less than 12 months left, those that have yet to prepare should consider the following steps now:
• Ringfence time to properly assess vulnerability and space: The biggest challenge for schools is to move from reactive to proactive,
ringfencing time to properly assess their safety risk, technology and current policies to build an embedded safety culture. Identifying
the specific risks your school faces - such as intruders, aggressive individuals or incidents in the local area - and how these risks change at
different points in the day, is an essential place to start. Using a plan of the site, walk the perimeter and internal spaces with a critical eye,
considering the weakest points and how an attacker might gain access.
• Create a solid lockdown plan: Consider time, control and simplicity, including designated roles, communication protocols and predete
mined safe zones. Your procedure should be simple enough to follow under stress and flexible enough to work during different parts of
the school day.
• Challenge your process and put your plan to the test: Schools are stretched by competing priorities and tight budgets, so safety
measures or emergency plans are often assessed against whether existing arrangements feel ‘adequate’. Unfortunately, it’s only
post-incident that people tend to question and challenge their security process, at which point the opportunity to prevent harm has a
ready passed. This is why it’s so important to run practice drills at least annually, and especially after any significant change to your policy
or procedures. Also, remember to train any new staff in your lockdown procedures as part of their induction.
• Review your school’s technology and security tools: Part of the assessment should be set aside for technology, looking at what you
currently have in place and what you might benefit from adding. Many schools, for example, still rely on fire alarms to cover a wide range
of emergencies, often using different durations or patterns as distinct signals. In a real emergency, however, this can create confusion,
remove context and add a layer of unnecessary risk. This is why I always advise education settings to either put a lockdown alarm system
in place to protect students and staff, or ensure emergency alerts can be clearly distinguished between different types of incidents.
That way, staff and students know how to respond. The added benefit of a lockdown alarm is that while extremely useful in lockdown
scenarios, the same technology can support a wide range of safeguarding applications, from medical emergencies and behavioural
incidents, to safeguarding concerns, as well as site-wide communication during unexpected events. These systems are there to
complement other security measures - such as fire alarms and CCTV - rather than replace them, as each have their own application and benefit.
For me, the earlier the preparation, the better; both in the context of existing incident rates and demonstrating commitment
to safety and compliance. Implementing these steps now doesn’t just reduce risk in the lead up to the law change, ensuring
students, staff, and parents remain as safe as possible when an incident does occur, it also avoids last-minute pressure as we
edge ever closer to what will be an entirely new regulatory environment.
